The Dead Ringer - by Fredric Brown (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Three murders were too many for Ed Hunter. Not even a dazzling redhead from the carnival's girl show could keep Ed altogether happy--not with a murderer running loose. Then Ed found it was up to him and his Uncle Am to find the killer among the freaks and strippers of the carnival--a killer who chose his victims according to size! Ed and his Uncle Am are back, working in a travelling carnival through the Midwest. Bodies, though smallish in stature, keep piling up, and Ed finds himself head over heels in love. Fascinating for the insights into carnival life that this book provides.

Never financially secure, Brown - like many other pulp writers - often wrote at a furious pace in order to pay bills. This accounts, at least in part, for the uneven quality of his work. A newspaperman by profession, Brown was only able to devote 14 years of his life as a full-time fiction writer. Brown was also a heavy drinker, and this at times doubtless affected his productivity. A cultured man and omnivorous reader whose interests ranged far beyond those of most pulp writers, Brown had a lifelong interest in the flute, chess, poker, and the works of Lewis Carroll. Brown married twice and was the father of two sons.

"Fredric Brown is a reasonably new name in the literary limelight, but already he has made his weight felt in no uncertain terms. His recent non-formula first novel, The Fabulous Clipjoint, is a remarkable tour de force sparkling with realism and suspense that many far more experienced writers of the genre have never been able to achieve. And his short stories, tightly packed with characterization and atmosphere, are far from the run-of-the-mill whodunit types which pervade detective-story magazines . . . One mystery editor has prophesied that one day soon Fredric Brown will be generally acknowledged as the best in the field, and from a hard-boiled, critical editor, that is indeed high praise."

-David C. Cooke

in Best Detective Stories of the Year-1947